Dragon Lee Recalls Tough Training Under His Father, Learning English In NXT

Dragon Lee says that training underneath his father wasn’t easy, as his dad took it very tough on him. Lee is the son of Arturo Sánchez, who worked as La Bestia del Ring and more in Mexico. He trained under his father from a very young age alongside his brothers RUSH and Dralistico, both of whom are in AEW.

Lee spoke about what it was like growing up the son of a wrestler in his appearance on Insight With Chris Van Vliet. He also recounted how little he spoke English when he first arrived in NXT and what helped him learn the language. You can see the highlights below:

On How Much English He Spoke When He Moved To The US:

“So little, just a couple of words. I remember when I got to NXT, my coach, Terry Taylor, he explained many things to me in class. He told me, ‘You understand?’ I said, no. It’s because they do the requests, and they said, do you speak English? I don’t want to say I don’t, I said, yes. I had to literally [learn] quick, but still, it’s hard.”

On How He Learned:

“I took classes with a teacher in Mexico, but just online, it’s not the same. When I was in NXT, we had school twice a week, one hour. But still I think I learned more English when I started doing more NXT every day, for six hours, staying in the PC, and I think that’s what helped me.”

On How Growing Up In a Wrestling Family Influenced Him:

“I just did wrestling because I wanted the attention from my father. When I was five years old, my dad and my mom separated. Now as a father, I can understand how he was in that time, but I was a child. I just needed the attention from my father, and he was more focused on my brothers, Rush and Dralístico. I just wanted to have the attention when he was training them. I was like, I want to do this. When I was 12 I started training more. I started doing kung fu, Olympic wrestling, boxing, because my father wanted to be prepared, because a wrestler has to be prepared. We had to have all the bases. I start feeling the wrestling and I start feeling passionate, I know what wrestling is. I did the old school: you have to be strong, Olympic, everything, and then you will learn what pro wrestling is. It was tough. So many times I really cried, really tough training, but I’m so proud now. I would say in that time, my father, he was tough, he was very rude, but he was my coach in that time, not my father. We lived together, and he was like, 8 am, has to be in the ring. He just set his alarm; he never woke me up, just left.”

On How He Got Through It:

“Because I wanted him to be proud of me. I don’t know if everyone has their own goals, dreams, but some of them at that time, still now. I wanted him to be proud of me, because he used to be my hero. We have a good relationship now, I have a wonderful family.”